OED co-hosts financing forum for industrial businesses – April 28thRecovery Finance Forum
The Manufacturing Industrial Council and Seattle’s Office of Economic Development are co-hosting a Recovery Finance Forum to introduce small- and medium-sized industrial businesses to capital financing fund opportunities fueled by the federal stimulus.

Seattle coffeehouses offer ‘disloyalty’ card, encourage customers to shop aroundSeattle Times
Local coffee dynamo Sarah Dooley has launched a disloyalty card to encourage Seattleites to try lots of different coffees around town. Modeled after a similar card in London, it offers a free beverage at the participating cafe of your choice after you’ve had a drink at each of the 10 coffeehouses on the card.

TechStars competition provides seed funding and mentorshipTechStars
TechStars is a mentorship-driven seed stage investment program. Selected companies receive up to $18,000 in seed funding, three months of intensive top-notch mentorship, and the chance to pitch to angel investors and venture capitalists at the end of the program. Apply by June 1st.

___________________________________________________________

As a service to the Seattle business community, the Office of Economic Development curates a daily business news blast, Daily Digest. As a new trial feature on Bottom Line, we’re posting a handful of stories from the Daily Digest every day. Find the stories informative or helpful? Keep checking Bottom Line or sign up for Daily Digest to receive the full version in your inbox every day. Subscribe to the Daily Digesthere.

This week, Real Simple magazine named Seattle the nation’s #1 time-saving city, thanks to our extensive public transit, plethora of Wi-Fi spots and coffee shops, proximity to one of the country’s most on-time airports, 50 miles of new bike lanes in the last two years, even our “impressively short waits for a doctor’s appointment.”

“Our 13 Neighborhood Service Centers are huge time-savers,” OED’s Karin Zaugg Black explains in the article. “At many of them, you can apply for a passport, pay utility bills or parking tickets, or have a hearing with the magistrate.”

The article also highlights Seattle’s state-of-the-art signal-optimization program, which synchronizes traffic lights to facilitate smoother travel through the city.

Portland, Oregon, and San Francisco, California, ranked second- and third-best time saving cities.